Here's what we have been doing this month...
Owen took his first airplane trip to Lake Tahoe for Matt and Heather's Wedding. He did great on the way out and slept 75% of the time. The rest of the flight he spent talking to everyone around us and flirting with the girls seated behind us. The flight back however, different story...O decided that he wanted to be awake the whole time and walk and play. Thank goodness we had a whole row to ourselves and O had his own seat (which he was very excited about!). The wedding was beautiful and the weather was nice, a little cold but what can you expect for Tahoe in April. Owen also went in the big pool for the first time with Chris and Matt and he loved it! Don't worry, the outdoor pool was heated so it was perfect for our little guy to be in. He cried when we took him out but I didn't want him to be out in the cool air for too long.
The very next weekend I went to Miami for Crystal and Dean's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and my first Jewish wedding and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I love how there is meaning to everything they do. I was there for 24 hours so it was a very quick trip but I was so happy to be able to spend the day with them and then hit South Beach with everyone after. I will admit I put up a fight to stay in, it was 1:30am and we were just heading out and I prefered to sleep instead AND we had a morning flight. Let's just say I didn't win that battle and we ended staying out until close to 5am. New Mommy+Partying in South Beach=ZOMBIE! But it was fun :)
On to the worst part of April, NO SLEEP! Owen has never slept throught he night, well that's a lie he did sleep for 4 weeks. Now his sleep has gone from bad to worse. We have been struggling to get his Reflux meds working and finally saw a GI specialist who got O on the right combo of meds and they seem to be working. We also took him off formula b/c the Similac was giving him excema. So yes, I am still bfeeding even though I planned to be done by all these trips and by 9 months. So everything with his reflux meds are working but now we are struggling with Separation Anxiety in a bad way! Owen is standing, climbing and jumping in his crib in the middle of the night for us. We know he's not in pain so we have been doing a bit of tough love. It's so hard to hear him cry but we have to teach him that he will be ok without us. Also, we learned from our 9 month appt that b/c I nursed Owen to sleep at night that he has associated bfeeding with sleeping. So when he wakes at night he wants to bfeed to get back to sleep. It's not his fault but that's what he has learned and he doesn't know how else to get back to sleep. I am reading Good night, sleep tight which teaches you how babies get attached to objects, actions etc and associate them with sleep. Oh why couldn't O get attached to his lovey more :) It also teaches you that sleep is a learned behavior so we have to teach O how to go to sleep and stay asleep on his own. This has not been easy and we are still working on it. More updates to come :) Praying for sleep...9 months with less than a few hours a night is not looking good on me!
9 Month Appt - Owen did great and this was an appt with no shots! We love those :) He did get his finger pricked but that was nothing. He was more upset over the band-aid than anything. But then saw it had elmo and cookie monster on it and then he was excited :) Oh the little things...ha!
Stats:
Weight 19lbs 25th%-tile
Height 30in 75th%-tile
Head 19in 90th%-tile (Yep, still has a huge head)
What Owen is doing...
-Crawling, crawling and crawling...and very fast now too! He is into everything and has figured out how to open cabinets, drawers, etc. We def have to baby proof our house soon.
-Pulling-up to stand and standing alone for 3-4 secs. O has been pulling up to stand for a while but now he is standing alone for a bit until he realizes he is not holding onto anything then he plops on his butt.
-Taking steps - O walks with holding our hands and also walks back and forth holding the sofa and in his crib (which is a slight nightmare when trying to get him to sleep). My mom bought him a little car that he can stand up with and walk and I think this has helped him with taking steps and with balance. Oh boy!
-O has 8 teeth, looks more like a little man now more than ever.
-Talking, Talking and Talking...O says Mama, Dada, Baba, SaSa (we think he's trying to say Sadie), YaYa (not sure where that came from) and Hi all the time. And some other things that we can't understand.
-Imitating...this is the cutest thing ever! He does, or tries to do everything we do. He has learned to do air kisses and constantly puckers his lips. I am trying to get him to put his hand to his mouth to "blow" kisses but no luck so far. He tries to wave byebye but does it backward and with his hand down. He's still working on it.
-Temper, Temper, Temper! Can you tell O has learned to throw a fit when he wants something or something displeases him :) He knows the word NO now but gives us the sweetest smile when we try to disipline him...ha!
-Eating, Owen still will eat a few baby foods but now prefers everything we are eating. We are cooking organic foods for him and trying to season things so that we like them and so far so good. Although we made turkey meatballs over the weekend and seasoned with oregano and found out that O doesn't really like it. He loves most herbs but I guess Oregano isn't his fave. He does a great job at feeding himself and will sometimes feed himself with a spoon. He is also drinking water from a sippy cup for lunch, afternoon snack and dinner and he's doing great with it. We hope to slowly move his evening bottle from before bed to dinner. He's a big boy now!
-Banging toys (and everything) together! His favorite thing is to bang everything on the table, floor, our heads. Guess he's learning sounds and loves making noise! He also has learned to throw things and loves to see how far he can throw his toys. Oh boy! Makes it hard to tell Sadie no when he's constantly throwing things to her. We need to get some dog friendly toys for them both to play with.
-Favorite things for Owen right now - baths, wagon rides looking at Us Weekly :) Yep, he loves magazines and it never fails that he wants to destroy my Us Weekly. He also loves playing peek-a-boo and has learned to put his lovey over his face and play with us.
-Things O absolutely hates right now - his room (we think b/c he associates it with sleep so he hates being in there), having his diaper or clothes changed. He would much rather be naked...but who wouldn't :)
-And last and the worst part of his 9 months is SEPARATION ANXIETY! He has now learned that when we are out of his sight, that we are not there and he gets so upset. We are working with him to teach him that we are just around the corner but as soon as he realizes he is alone, he crawls at super speed to get to us. Hoping this passes soon!
Hope to post more updates soon! Here's a pic from Matt & Heather's Wedding weekend of our little guy in his Tie t-shirt :)
